China Lumena New Materials (commonly called Lumena) is a Chinese mining and manufacturing company primarily engaged in the production of
polyphenylene sulfide
Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) is an organic polymer consisting of aromatic rings linked by sulfides. Synthetic fiber and textiles derived from this polymer resist chemical and thermal attack. PPS is used in filter fabric for coal boilers, paperma ...
(PPS), an industrial plastic. According to a market research report in 2016, the company is among the largest producers of PPS.
Lumena mines the
glauberite
Glauberite is a monoclinic sodium calcium sulfate mineral with the formula Na2 Ca( S O4)2.
It was first described in 1808 for material from the El Castellar Mine, Villarrubia de Santiago, Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It was named for the ...
and associated class of minerals that is the raw ingredient used by the company to manufacture PPS and
thenardite products including laxatives.
History
The company traces its origins to 1952.
In June 2009, the company raised US$149 million in an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Although the company had planned to launch an IPO in 2008, the Sichuan earthquake that year delayed the plans.
The Hong Kong listed company was suspended from trading by the exchange after Glaucus, a short seller investment research firm, published a report that alleged sales stated by the company were fraudulently inflated and its claim to have the most production capacity volume was misleading.
Following turmoil for the company created by the report, on January 19, 2015, one of its creditors, Taiwan-based
Mega Bank, filed a winding up petition against Lumena to institute involuntary insolvency proceedings for the company before the Grand Court of the
Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...
.
Mining
Lumena is vertically integrated. From two captive mines in Sichuan at the Dahongshan Mining Area and the Guangji Mining Area the company mines glauberite and associated minerals, which are then used to manufacture natural thenardite products and PPS, the two product segments of the company.
The company announced the acquisition in June 2011 of two mining companies in
Meishan
Meishan (; Sichuanese Pinyin: Mi2san1; local pronunciation: ; ), formerly known as Meizhou () or Qingzhou (), is a prefecture-level city with 2,955,219 inhabitants as of 2020 census whom 1,232,648 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of th ...
, Sichuan, but canceled the planned acquisition in announcement in April 2012.
Product segments
PPS
Lumena is one of a handful of manufacturers of PPS, a plastic with several engineering applications, along with competitors including
Solvay Solvay may refer to:
Companies and organizations
* Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Brussels, Belgium
* Solvay Conference, founded by Ernest Solvay, deals with open questions in physics and chemistry
* Solvay Indupa, an Argen ...
(which bought the PPS business from Chevron Philips), Chengdu Letian,
DIC Corporation
is Japanese chemical company, specializing in the development, manufacture and sale of inks, pigments, polymers, specialty plastics and compounds and biochemicals.
It was founded in 1908 as Kawamura Ink Manufactory, renamed to Kawamura Kijuro ...
,
Kureha, Fortron (a joint venture between Kureha and
Ticona
Celanese Corporation, formerly known as Hoechst Celanese, is an American technology and specialty materials company headquartered in Irving, Texas. A Fortune 500 corporation, the company is the world’s leading producer of acetic acid, produc ...
),
Toray Industries
is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan that specializes in industrial products centered on technologies in organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and biochemistry.
Its founding business areas were fibers and textiles, ...
, and
Tosoh
is a global chemical and specialty materials company. The company was founded in 1935 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, as Toyo Soda Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and in 1987 changed its name to Tosoh Corporation. Today, its corporate headquarters are in Toky ...
.
The PPS line of business began after the acquisition in 2010 of Sino Polymer New Materials Co., Ltd., a PPS manufacturer, that owned and operated two plants in
Deyang
Deyang () is a prefecture-level city of Sichuan province, China. Deyang is a largely industrial city, with companies such as China National Erzhong Group and Dongfang Electric having major operations there. The city is rich in history, with the Sa ...
and Chengdu in Sichuan.
The goal behind the acquisition was to build a vertically integrated company as one of the main feedstocks in producing PPS is thenardite.
Thenardite
Derived from the company's mines, the other product segment of the company is natural thenardite products, which is mainly divided into medical thenardite or powder thenardite. The edible medical thenardite is used as a laxative and anti-inflammatory agent while powder thenardite is an ingredient of powdered laundry detergent.
Procter & Gamble
The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...
is a major buyer of powdered thenardite from the company, using it to make laundry detergent.
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References
{{Authority control
Mining companies of China